Three Cuts to Nowhere
Chapter 28 – Three Cuts to Nowhere
Part 1: The Bonehowler
The Gravefields east of Almaarad weren't on any maps anymore.
Once, they were sanctified. Pilgrims walked here to pray over plague-dead family. Now the only thing that walked them were things that shouldn't walk at all.
Kael arrived as the sun dipped behind the shale hills, casting the world in a dusky grey. The tomb markers were crooked and half-sunk, weeping iron rot from their carvings. Nothing moved.
Not even the wind.
He walked between the graves in silence, his coat brushing past the dead like a whispered apology.
He didn't need to search.
He knew the Bonehowler was watching.
The system had marked it: Tier-3, Class: Disruptor.
Capable of vocal frequencies that shattered concentration. Could cancel active skill channels by flooding the mind with unspoken fear. Most hunters fought with their eyes closed.
Kael didn't.
He turned off the System manually.
[Manual Override: Interface Blackout – Active]Sensory balance: External onlyRisk level: HighRecommended: None
He didn't care.
He wasn't hunting with data.
He was hunting with instinct.
It came at twilight.
A sound—not a roar, not a cry.
Something between a sob and a memory of war.
The moment it hit, Kael's vision doubled. His spine tensed. His hearing blurred at the edges.
He closed his eyes.
Let it pass through.
Then moved.
The Bonehowler stood at the far end of the field, half-exposed from the soil. A massive skeletal hound with ribcage wings folded over its sides. Pale green light flickered inside its skull like haunted breath.
It opened its jaws again, and the air around it wavered.
Kael dropped to a knee.
Not from pain.From positioning.
When the next sound pulsed out, he used the pressure wave as momentum.
Blink—left.
Slide—forward.
The beast twisted, slower than it should be.
Its ribs flexed.
Kael ducked beneath a snap of clawed bone.
He didn't use Shadow Carve yet.
This was anatomy.
He had studied this thing before he ever stepped foot on the field.
His blade met the gap between the scapula and its back joint.
Crack.
Scream.
Then—another voice.
"You're not real," it rasped."You're not of this world."
Kael said nothing.
He blinked again, this time straight through the skull.
His blade trailed behind him like an extension of thought.
It cleaved the jaw from the creature mid-turn.
The sound died instantly.
The thing stumbled.
No scream this time.
Just a cough of bone dust.
He finished it in silence.
The system didn't flicker back on. He reached for the interface manually.
[Elite-Class Kill Confirmed – Bonehowler (Tier-3)]✔ 8 / 10 Elite Targets Eliminated✔ Shadow Mark +1
"The howl faded. You didn't."
Kael cleaned his blade on the grass. Stood. Exhaled.
The world was quiet again.
Too quiet.
The kind that waited.
Two left.
And he knew exactly where they were.